Month: June 2017

During this period the moon’s phase will increase from half illuminated to nearly full. This weekend the half illuminated moon will set during the early morning hours allowing a couple of hours of viewing under dark conditions. With each passing night this window of opportunity shrinks and by the end of the period the full moon will lie above the horizon nearly the entire night.

After an outburst of Camelopardalids shower in 2014, the next interesting year is 2019, when two small outbursts are possible. The first one with ZHR up to 10 is expected from 1939 trail of the comet 209P/LINEAR at 7:44 UT on 24 May, the second with ZHR up to 5 could be produced by 1994-2009 trails around 11 UT on 24 May. Details are here:...

Koen Miskotte (1) and Michel Vandeputte (2) 1 Dutch Meteor Society k.miskotte@upcmail.nl 2 Dutch Meteor Society and Vereniging voor Sterrenkunde michel.vandeputte@hotmail.com Enhanced Perseid activity had been predicted for 2016 as a result of a sequence of encounters with some dust trails as well as the effect of perturbations by Jupiter which made Earth crossing the main stream deeper through more dense regions. Visual observations resulted in a detailed activity profile and population index profile, the observed features in these profiles could be matched with the predicted passages through the different dust trails. The 4 Rev (1479) dust trail in particular produced a distinct peak while the 7 Rev (1079) dust trail remained rather at a somehow disappointing low level. The traditional annual Perseid maximum displayed enhanced activity due to the 12 Rev (441) dust trail. 1 Introduction Since a few years it was known that the 2016 Perseids could produce an exceptional display. Several outbursts were expected due to the presence of a number of dust trails from the parent comet 109/P Swift-Tuttle, thanks to the perturbations caused by the planet Jupiter. The very same perturbations would cause the background component (the annual activity) to produce a better than usual display as Earth would pass through the more dense parts of the meteor stream. And yes, we did not get disappointed! During the night of 11 on...

During this period the moon will reach its new phase on Friday June 23. At this time the moon will lie near the sun and will not be visible at night. Later in this period the waxing crescent moon will enter the evening sky but will not interfere with meteor observing, especially during the more active morning hours.

Radio Meteor Observations in the World: Monthly Reports for May 2017 by The International Project for Radio Meteor Observation(IPRMO). Eta-Aquariids 2017 One one the major meteor showers, Eta-Aquariids was active this month. The activity level was higher than in other years. Figure 1 shows the comparison between the average annual activity covering the period 2004-2017 (red line) and this year (circle with error). The peak around Solar Longitude=44°.3 was predicted peak by several researchers. This compornent was estimated as maximum activity level=1.1 at Solar Longitude 44°.32 (May 4th 20h30m(UT)) with Full Witdh Half Maximum(FWHM) -3.0hr / +3.0hr. The annual peak which has a peak around 45°.5 was shown around 45°.4-45°.6. This was estimated as maximum activity level=1.3 at 45°.41 (May 5th 23h30m(UT)) with FWHM: -48.0hr / +42.0hr. The detail result : Result of 2017 Eta-Aquariids (by IPRMO). May, 2017 The following graph showes the monitored result (using ONLY Japanese stations) in May 2017. In Japan, there was no unusual activity except for the period of the Eta-Aquariids. Although some high activity levels which were above the usual level (0.0±0.4), some uncertain wheather occurred and some meteor activity may be due to observing errors. Acknowledgement — Radio Meteor Observing Bulletin (RMOB) — Radio Meteor Observation in Japan (RMOJ) — all radio meteor...